Editing Tales of Leo Attiel:Volume1 Chapter5 (section)

===Part 1===


''I bet the lord sovereign-prince was completely astounded'', thought Leo Attiel.

Said sovereign-prince was, of course, Magrid Attiel, ruler of Atall – in other words, Leo’s father.

When things had gotten heated between Conscon Temple and Allion, the sovereign-price had sent five hundred soldiers in reinforcement. In a way, he had been earning a favour from the temple, but that would be completely meaningless if the temple were to fall. Leo did not know whether the sovereign-prince was satisfied with just that number of soldiers, or whether he had been preparing to send a next wave of reinforcements.

At any rate, Magrid had dispatched Nauma and had exchanged messengers with the temple, so he should have some level of understanding of the battle situation. He must have been pleased to hear that Allion was having an unexpectedly difficult time. With that, Atall’s plan was successfully unfolding towards the situation described by the vassal-lord Oswell when he had first suggested sending reinforcements – namely, that the faithful within Allion would be worried about the fight and would speak up in the temple’s defence.

Nevertheless, unexpectedly distressing news had reached Magrid that: “Lord Leo is to be executed within Allion.”

When it was discovered that Atall had supported the temple, the army commander for Allion had flown into a rage and had Leo killed. That rumour came from the southwest border area, and slowly seeped out within the territory, so that it reached the capital, Tiwana, a few days later. Magrid had been in the middle of eating, and the spoon he was holding fell to the floor.

It must have seemed impossible.

He had sent his troops with great caution this time. Even the temple’s request for help had only been revealed to a few of the vassal-lords and a small number of his own retainers. The soldiers’ preparations had also been kept entirely secret, and they had avoided using any piece of armour or weaponry that was characteristic of Atall. For example: Atall’s regular soldiers frequently used curved blades, but these soldiers had been strictly forbidden from taking any with them. Moreover, when they had been choosing the men, one of the criteria had been to send only those who did not have an Atallese accent, or those who could hide it.

Yet all that trouble had been in vain. Allion had discovered that Atall had sent reinforcements, and it was said that the hostage Leo had lost his life.

''I didn’t receive any report from Nauma about anything like this.''

For a while, the sovereign-prince was badly shaken up, however, the story of Leo’s execution was no more than a rumour. Magrid admonished the people at the castle who were starting to get worked up – “Why are you all running around like this over some groundless rumour?” He skilfully avoided specifying whether that “groundless rumour” referred to the reinforcements or to the story of Leo’s execution, but he was going to send a messenger to verify its veracity. It was then that the sovereign-prince was “completely astounded” in the truest sense.

He was once again in the middle of eating when a steward came bursting in, his entire face beaming with joy.

“Lord Leo has safely returned to Tiwana!”

This time, it was a glass that fell from Magrid’s hand.

The people of Tiwana had naturally heard the rumour that the prince had been executed. Although Atall had always been a small country compared to Allion, it had an equally long history and, over the generations, a deep affection for the princely house had taken root in that land. The people grieved over the tragic news of the prince’s execution, and raised their voices in anger.

It was then that they received the report that Leo had returned. It was said that although it was true that Allion had intended to execute him, but he had succeeded in escaping with the help of the soldiers secretly sent by the sovereign-prince. The people were in a frenzy, and voices all around rose in praise of their compassionate ruler.

In no time at all, a crowd of people was thronging the road along which Leo and his party was supposed to be arriving, and since the prince and his companions actually did happen to be going that way, the people raised cheers of joy, waved their hands, and shouted the names of the prince and sovereign-prince.

Magrid and his retainers came out of the palace to meet them. They had no choice but to do so. If, for example, Leo had been found near the border, the sovereign-prince would immediately have sent out riders with orders to keep him there, thus buying himself some time to check what the actual situation was.

At times like these, a statesman's duty was to give priority to the country’s situation, rather than to the affection between father and child. If it had not been true that Allion was going to execute Leo, and if they had no intention of doing so in the future, then there would still have been the possibility of pretending not to know anything about things like reinforcements, and sending Leo back to Allion’s domains. 

However, Lord Leo, who had once been said to have been executed, had been rescued by the soldiers sent by the sovereign-prince, and had returned safely. When the people saw the young prince before them, they shouted and cheered; the sovereign-prince could not choose to ignore this.

''Those men called Percy and Camus… it’s all going according to their plan''. Lord Leo forgot his own situation and almost smiled.

– Having safely left the mountains from the east, the party had been met by soldiers from Claude’s camp. 

On the way, he had heard from Percy that Claude apparently hoped to return Leo to Atall. When they had been climbing down the mountain, Leo had been mostly expressionless, but when he had heard that, he had been unable to hold back his tears.

Moreover, Claude’s daughter, Florrie Anglatt, had announced that she would accompany him out of the territory – “Until the prince has safely returned to his land.”

Naturally, Leo had refused, but he had been struck with an idea: ''If it comes to it, wouldn’t it be a good idea to say that I took her hostage and escaped?''

If they did, then this flight would not have been orchestrated by Claude, emphasis would be laid on how Leo had acted alone, and Claude’s situation within Allion would not turn any worse than necessary.

Claude gave them horses and provisions, as well as a small amount of travel expenses. Florrie was again seated behind Leo and the entire group travelled east to cross the border.

Well, it was from that point that Percy Leegan and Camus the warrior monk revealed their plan. They were worried that the sovereign-prince would certainly act in the manner mentioned above. Therefore, even after they had entered Atall’s territory, they did not immediately head for a town or a castle to ask for protection for the prince, but instead deliberately avoided the highway and aimed straight for the capital. 

While hiding the prince’s identity, they stayed at village inns and actively spread rumours about Leo’s death. As though they were following after those rumours, they slowly took their time to arrive at the capital, and entered it after revealing for the first times their identities as “Leo Attiel and the ones who saved the prince.” This time, they intentionally chose the main streets so as to attract attention. Sarah, dressed up as a town girl, had first gone and spread the news that “Lord Leo has returned alive”, so there were crowds of people to greet them.

The scheme worked, and the sovereign-prince was forced to welcome his son.

– That, at any rate, was the public attitude that Magrid adopted, but, of course, his private thoughts were different. For the time being, he shut his son in a room, saying “you should have some rest”, after which he got Percy to give him the full details.

Just as he had been asked to, Percy told his story. He told the truth about their planned attack on the enemy headquarters, and about how this had failed and they had been captured by the enemy general, but from that point on, he added a few embellishments as he saw fit.

“We too have no way of knowing if the king of Allion was intending to execute the prince. However, there seemed to be some unrest among Allion’s troops when that rumour spread. The prince escaped to the mountains from the mansion where he was being taken care of, along with the young lady of the family. The enemy camp was in complete disarray because of the hunt in the mountains, so thanks to that, we found an opportunity to slip away and successfully met with the prince before anyone else. No matter how much the presence of our reinforcements may have angered Allion, leaving the prince to die would have been the height of disloyalty. That was why I brought the prince with us on nothing but my own judgement.”

“I thank you for the trouble you took.”

What could Sovereign-Prince Magrid say other than that?

Rather than trouble having been taken, however, it had only just started.

''Allion has realised that we supported the temple.''

If it had only been that, they could still have come up with some excuse.

''Leo, the hostage who had been given to them, escaped by himself.''

There was no getting away from that, however.

Rumours of Leo’s return had, by now, gone around the whole territory, and was causing ripples all over. At first, the people had welcomed his return, but currently, many shuddered with worry.

“What will happen to our relations with Allion after this?”

“A huge army could march on us at any moment!”

Having heard the rumours, the vassal-lords came running one after another to the capital. 

As mentioned previously, these ‘vassal-lords’ were domain lords who ruled the southern half of Atall, which was divided between them. They had considerable authority within Atall. Although they belonged to the same principality, they kept their personal military forces to protect their lands and assets, and, at times, they would also stand united when addressing the princely house.

An episode which perfectly illustrates that power relationship was an event which happened ten-odd years previously. Two nobles, both vassal-lords, quarrelled over a newly-discover vein of dragonbone. Both hired mercenaries and there were even military clashes, but the ruling house did not intervene. Even if he had tried to, since there were militias in every vassal-lord’s territory, the sovereign-prince, despite his position, could not mobilise all of the country’s armed forces. It would, of course, have cost money to hire new troops and, at the time, an unusually long spell of rain had lead to repeated flood damage in the northern part of the country, so what with providing aid to the villagers and having to undertake works for flood-control, there were also very few funds left at hand.

Magrid’s father, who was the sovereign-prince at the time, made the token effort of sending a letter and envoy, then left things to die down naturally.

Half a year later, although they were still standing-off against each other and there were still the occasional skirmishes, the two sides had finally reached a reconciliation. However, the vassal-lords collectively criticised the sovereign-prince.
“The sovereign-prince abandoned the domains and their people.”

“His attitude risks being indecisive if the time comes to face off against another country.”

“His Majesty is getting on in years. Wouldn’t it be about time…?”

Rumours sprang up that soldiers were being gathered in each of the territories. So – “Rather than allow the country to split…” Magrid’s father had no choice but to abdicate the throne.

He had not been mistaken in judging that his position was too weak to allow him to intervene in the dispute. Nevertheless, in doing so, he sowed the seeds of trouble. After all, it had set a precedent in which the vassal-lords were able to match House Attiel in strength – or rather, in which they had demonstrated even greater influence than the ruler.

They obeyed their liege, the sovereign-prince’s, orders only if these served to protect the territories, people or assets of the vassal-lords, but there was no reason for them to follow orders which did not benefit them. And the recent reinforcements to Conscon Temple was definitely an example of an order which did not benefit the vassal-lords.

Magrid had invited several vassal-lords that he was comparatively close with to discuss the matter, but, apart from Oswell Taholin, all of them had opposed helping the temple. And even though Oswell had recommended sending reinforcements, he had not offered any of his own soldiers. Consequently, it was not merely because he had not wanted Allion to suspect anything that Magrid had not sent any more soldiers than necessary; from the start, he had never been in a position to be able to dispatch a large contingent of reinforcements.

Anyway, one after another, the vassal-lords turned up uninvited at the palace. There were seven of them.

Those who had not known about the reinforcements all expressed anger –

“Why did you send soldiers to the temple?”

“We didn’t hear anything about this!”

As for those who had been informed about it –

“I told you so. This is why I was against it.”

They too were openly furious. 

“This will rekindle the antagonism with Allion. Does the sovereign-prince have any kind of plan to deal with this situation?”

For all that he was their ruler, Magrid had no way to appease them when they pressed him like that one after another.

While his father was caught in that predicament, Leo Attiel had not once been seen in public since returning to the country. Nor had he met with his father except on that first day.

Afterwards, it was his older brother, Branton, who came to visit him. The brother who was two years older than Leo and whom he had not seen in about six years hugged him so tightly he almost couldn’t breathe.

“I’m glad you made it back,” Branton whispered in tears in his younger brother’s ear. “Right now, your situation has a lot about it that must be tough for you, but be patient. Now that you’re home, nothing will happen to you, don’t worry.”

It was only when Leo started choking that he finally released him and took another look at his little brother.

“But you’ve grown up so fine while I couldn’t see you! You’ll soon be taller than me,” he beamed with joy.

That one occasion was the only family affection that Leo got to experience during those few days. Both his other, younger brother as well as his mother merely had stewards bring him their perfunctory greetings, and did not meet with him.

Even Leo’s meals were eaten in solitary silence in his own chambers. There, there was no unkind teasing coming from Walter and Jack, nor was there Claude’s booming, bandit-like voice, nor his wife, Ellen, who liked attending to every small detail in the kitchen despite coming from a wealthy merchant family, nor Florrie’s smiling face.

Florrie was apparently currently installed within Tiwana Palace. It seemed that she herself had wanted to remain here.

In a sense, the girl’s presence could potentially turn into an even more dangerous burning ember than Lord Leo. Eager to avoid any more trouble than necessary, Sovereign-Prince Magrid had dispatched a messenger to Claude Anglatt’s castle, bearing a letter, the gist of which was that, “Miss Florrie Anglatt is welcome as an honoured guest”. He added that, “we will send her to you at once if you have made arrangements to receive her”, but a few days later, a runner sent ahead of the messenger returned to say that the messenger had not been allowed to cross the border.

Leo thought it was only natural. Claude was not currently in a position where he could afford to be suspected of having any ties to the principality. If rumours spread that they were exchanging secret messengers, that position would become even worse.

Leo calmly surveyed the room in which he had spent his childhood, then went to stand by the window. When he opened the curtains with their slightly childish design, he could just make out the ridgeline of the mountains that lay on the other side of the castle town. He stared hard at them, wondering if they were the same line of mountains that could be see from the Anglatt territory, but he quickly realised that they were different.

Feeling utterly dejected, Leo roughly closed the curtains.